President Obama said last week that contrary to his requests and due to security reasons, his presidential limousine could not be a hybrid vehicle.

â€œI asked can we make these cars hybrids,â€ Obama said at a town hall in Charlotte, North Carolina last friday.

â€œSecret Service said no. Now, the reason is not because Secret Service are bad guys. It’s because the cars that I’m in are like tanks.â€ The president explained because his limo â€“ nicknamed â€œthe beastâ€ is reinforced for security reasons, and weighs over two times the normal weight of cars, â€œthey just couldn’t get the performance in terms of acceleration using a hybrid engine.â€

Instead his five-metre long armoured transport is rumoured to be powered by a 8.0-litre V8 turbo diesel that uses three times more fuel than an average family car – around 30 litres per 100km.

The administration this week announced that after a review, they have purchased more than 5,000 hybrid cars and trucks as part of the federal fleet of vehicles.